\n Tim Jacobs, from Worcester, is sharing his experience as part of a national campaign by the Stroke Association ahead of World Stroke Day to raise awareness of stroke’s life-changing impact at any age.\n<\/p>\n
\n He is backing the charity\u2019s “Survival Is Not Enough” campaign.\n<\/p>\n
\n Mr Jacobs said: “I had no idea what my future looked like.\n<\/p>\n
\n “I lay in a hospital bed, unable to walk, unable to speak, unable to write.\n<\/p>\n
\n “My dominant hand no longer worked.\n<\/p>\n
\n “Words were trapped in my mind.\n<\/p>\n
\n “It was horrible.”\n<\/p>\n
\n HOPEFUL: Tim Jacobs, from Worcester, sits alongside his wife, Nadine. (Image: Tim Jacobs)\n<\/p>\n
\n He suffered a large haemorrhagic stroke, a bleed on the brain, while in the Netherlands visiting family for his birthday.\n<\/p>\n
\n He spent nine days in intensive care and a further nine days on a neurology ward.\n<\/p>\n
\n He developed aphasia, a language disorder, and later apraxia, which still affects his speech.\n<\/p>\n
\n Mr Jacobs said: “My thoughts are clear, but my speech is out of sync.\n<\/p>\n
\n “It\u2019s slow. It\u2019s hard.”\n<\/p>\n
\n He stayed in the Netherlands for rehabilitation after the stroke, determined to recover as much as possible.\n<\/p>\n
\n Three months later, his wife Nadine and their children had to return to the UK.\n<\/p>\n
\n Mr Jacobs said: “That was one of the hardest moments.\n<\/p>\n
\n “Not knowing when I\u2019d see them again, but I knew why I was doing it.\n<\/p>\n
\n “I had to get better.”\n<\/p>\n
\n Seven months after his stroke, he finally returned home.\n<\/p>\n
\n However, the 38-year-old is still recovering and has shared dreams of one day being able to tie his hair up again.\u00a0\n<\/p>\n
\n Juliet Bouverie OBE, CEO of the Stroke Association, said: “A stroke is a devastating brain injury, leaving behind life-changing trauma.\n<\/p>\n
\n “In an instant, a stroke can steal away the things that many of us take for granted, such as walking, talking, eating and living independently; the things that make you, you.”\n<\/p>\n
\n The Stroke Association\u2019s “Survival is Not Enough” campaign aims to drive awareness of the impact of stroke.\n<\/p>\n
\n It also supports the Channel 4 documentary series “Trauma: My Broken Brain,” which follows the lives of three young adults recovering from a stroke.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tim Jacobs, from Worcester, is sharing his experience as part of a national campaign by the Stroke Association…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":814826,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[59,102,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-814825","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-gb","tag-health","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/814825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=814825"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/814825\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/814826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=814825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=814825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=814825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}